2020-10-19 Mon

Ernest Rutherford was a New Zealand-born British physicist who came to be known as the father of nuclear physics. He postulated the nuclear structure of the atom, discovered alpha and beta rays and proposed the laws of radioactive decay.

Rutherford won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1908 "for his investigations into the disintegration of the elements, and the chemistry of radioactive substances", for which he was the first Canadian and Oceanian Nobel laureate. He was president of the Royal Society and the British Association for the Advancement of Science. In 1925, he has conferred the Order of Merit and was raised to the peerage as Lord Rutherford of Nelson in 1931.

Rutherford is considered to have been among the greatest scientists in history. In 2010, 10 commemorative stamps were launched to celebrate 350 years of the Royal Society. All stamps featuring pioneering scientist whose portraits are paired with dramatic and colourful imagery representing their achievements. One of them illustrates Ernest Rutherford.

Image Source: https://physicsworld.com/